It has been traditional for many years for the bakery industry, and the baked confection industry, to bring to the consuming product baked goods and flour confections where cheese is a principal flavor ingredient. Such products may include buns and muffins, biscuits, other breads and loaves, sweet confections having a cheese additive, and so on. However, the preparation of baked products including cheese, or even pizza, will essentially destroy the flavor and/or texture of the cheese due to the heat at which the product is baked.
In the preparation of such products as cheese bread, it has been traditional to use cheese flakes or grated cheese taken directly from block cheese by shaving or grating the cheese block. The cheese flakes or grated cheese powder are added to the mixture to be baked--usually just prior to the baking process. Even so, however, the baked product, or at least the cheese in the baked product, may become essentially flavorless, or the cheese may acquire a gummy texture, or the lactose contained in the cheese may have become burned or caramelized, leaving a burnt and otherwise unpleasant taste sensation. Indeed, it does not go unnoticed that mozzarella cheese, the cheese most commonly used in the preparation of pizza, may become less flavorful than it was previously and/or become gummy in its texture.
In the preparation of baked product such as cheese bread, where grated cheese has been made using bulk cheese product, the baking process causes the water constituent of the cheese to evaporate. Then, the protein constituent of the cheese, which remains, acts like a gum, and also the lactose constituent of the cheese will begin to caramelize. That is why the traditional use of grated cheese or cheese flakes prepared by grating, shaving or flaking brick cheese or bulk cheese, results in less than satisfactory baked product.
The general and approved definition of cheese, and the standards by which cheese is defined, require that cheese when it is in its brick or bulk form contains approximately 50% to 52% of moisture, with 23% to 25% butter fat, 9% to 10% protein constituents, and the balance or remainder being lactose. Cheese may, itself, be dried so as to substantially drive off most of the moisture constituent of the block or bulk cheese, while retaining the remainder of the cheese constituents as cheese solids.
If those cheese solids can be obtained and preserved, as is possible merely by driving off substantially all of the water or moisture content of the cheese, then most of the flavor sensations of the cheese would remain. However, the cheese solids or powder that would then remain cannot themselves be incorporated into baked goods.
The present inventors have quite unexpectedly discovered, however, that if cheese solids which are obtained by driving off the moisture content of brick or bulk cheese are then suspended in compatible oils or liquid fats, and then otherwise treated as described in greater detail hereafter, then a cheese-based product results which can be baked into baked goods or other flour confections. The flavor sensations and constituency of the cheese in the baked product are quite satisfactory.
It is recognized that the preparation of baked cheese products or other flour confections cannot simply be achieved by preparing flakes, chips or grated cheese from bulk or brick cheese and incorporating them into the bakery mix in much the same way as, for example, chocolate chips are incorporated into baked products. This is because, as noted above, the water or moisture content of the cheese evaporates during baking and the evaporation takes with it a certain portion of the flavor sensations that may otherwise have been present. Also, as noted, the remaining protein acts like a gum, and the lactose may caramelize.
The present invention provides a cheese-based dry flake product which does not exhibit the shortcomings of the prior art, and the common bakery experiences described above. By providing a cheese-based dry flake product the present invention will provide what may be described as a cheese product for incorporation into baked products and other flour confections, where the nature of the cheese-based product may be such that its characteristics such as its viscosity and its ingredient contents may be determined and adjusted or tailored for specific intended uses. In other words, the present invention will provide a cheese ingredient for incorporation into such varying products as tea biscuits which may have a relatively fast baking time--for example, 10 or 15 minutes--at baking temperatures of about 177.degree. C. (350.degree. F.) while also providing other cheese-based flavoring ingredients to be baked into cheese breads which may be baked for 30 or 40 minutes at temperatures above 177.degree. C.
In order to do so, then the process for preparation of the cheese-based dry flake product of the present invention must be such that it can be controlled for consistency of results, and controlled for differences between cheese-based dry flake products being manufactured at different times, as necessary.
In order for that to happen, certain criteria are required. Specifically, it is necessary that the formulation for preparation of the cheese-based dry flake product must incorporate the use of compatible oils that are compatible both with the cheese solids being used and with the bakery or other flour confection to be manufactured.
As will be described hereafter, suitable cheese-compatible and bakery-compatible oils will generally be liquid butter fats--derived from milk fat--or vegetable oils that display similar solid fat index and melting points as those of butter fat. Other characteristics, generally stated, are that oils to be used in the formulation of cheese-based dry flake products according to the present invention should be such that when they are solidified they will smear or become part of the shortening being mixed into the bakery mix prior to the baking process; the oils should be such that when they are solidified they will stay relatively firm during the baking process and yet have a mouth sense in that they will essentially melt in the mouth at approximately 35.degree. C.; and of course, the oils or fats must be such that they will not otherwise conflict with or be intolerable with the intended baked goods in which they will be present.
A corollary to the above is that, as is now being required more and more frequently and more rigidly, the oils or fats and other ingredients used to prepare cheese-based dry flake products in keeping with the present invention must be compatible with the requirements for controlled ingredient legends and other labelling provisions that are imposed on food products.
Another aspect of the present invention is the provision of cheese-based snack items. The desire to have a snack--a small portion of food that is usually tasty and usually unlike that which is consumed at the table--is universal. Many people, ranging from pre-school children to elderly retirees are driven to seek something to eat other than at regularly scheduled meal times. Teenagers are notorious for snacking between classes, in class, when they return home from school, after dinner while watching television or doing homework, and so on. Office workers will snack at their desks, perhaps with a cup of coffee or glass of juice consumed at their desk during working hours; and many factories, whether they are unionized or not, have or will permit short breaks during work shifts for their employees to stop, refresh themselves, and partake of a snack.
However, people are becoming more health conscious, and desirous of either cutting down on their intake of "junk foods" as well as their intake of excessive amounts of calories, cholesterol, and so on. This has led to specific attempts on the part of families, teachers, dietary experts, and the like, to teach and encourage consumption of "healthful" foods, and to avoid excessive consumption of overly sweet, sugar-laden products. Unfortunately, some snack items that are particularly advocated are such as fruits, which are perishable, and which must be carefully stored and wrapped because of their likelihood of rotting or becoming mouldy. Even the consumption of cookies, especially those which have sugar-based fillings or coatings, or fruit jam or jelly fillings, is being discouraged by dietary experts. Moreover, fillings and coatings that are based on sugar and/or chocolate may tend to degrade in time, or become mouldy. Other snack items may include slices from cheese bricks or wheels, which may be consumed with crackers or the like.
Indeed, many people will prepare snack items by spreading crackers, which have low calorie content and are otherwise quite healthful, with cheese; or they may bring small containers of a cheese and some crackers to their school or work place, for purposes of having a snack. However, spreading a cracker or thin biscuit with cheese very often results in the cracker or biscuit fracturing, and it generally requires the use of highly processed cheeses which are spreadable and which contain more moisture than natural cheeses such as brick, Cheddar or Gruyere cheeses.
Thus, the present invention provides a convenient snack item which has exceptional shelf-life and which has all of the health advantages of natural and high grade cheeses, together with natural cereals or other cheese-compatible edible additives--especially those which do not have a high sugar or fat content. Thus, the present invention provides a molded cheese-based snack bar which has a particulate cheese-compatible and edible additive admixed to a molded cheese-based product. The snack bar is primarily cheese, but will have a flavor and mouth sensation whose contribution comes from the nature of the particulate cheese-compatible and edible additive that is admixed to it. For example, a typical particulate cheese-compatible edible additive may be crisp puffed rice or crisp puffed wheat. Other prepared breakfast cereals--although, in general, not the pre-sweetened or sugar coated cereals--may also be utilized; however, crisp puffed rice or crisp puffed wheat are the most likely candidates from the point of view of the taste sensation when combined with that of cheese, and that might be demanded by or acceptable to the snack consuming public. Moreover, other particulate cheese-compatible edible additives that may be used for preparation of the molded snack bar of the present invention include such items as popcorn--usually fresh but dried popcorn without salt or butter having been added thereto--as well as peanuts, croutons, bacon bits, and the like.